OpenAI gets new $1.5 billion investment from SoftBank, allowing employees to sell shares in a tender offer
The new financing will allow the Japanese tech conglomerate to get an even larger slice of the AI startup and allow current and former OpenAI employees to cash out their shares, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Employees will have until Dec. 24 to decide if they want to participate in the new tender offer, which has not previously been reported, one of the people said. The deal was spurred by SoftBank billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who was persistent in asking for a larger stake in the startup after putting $500 million into OpenAI's last funding round, one of the people said.
The tender offer is not related to OpenAI's potential plans to restructure the firm to a for-profit business, one of the people said.
The deal, which the people familiar with the matter said was carried out through SoftBank's Vision 2 fund, underscores Son's interest in the AI space and in backing the most valuable private players. SoftBank was an early investor in semiconductor company Arm, and Son said at a conference in October that he's saving "tens of billions of dollars" to make the "next big move" in artificial intelligence. He previously invested in Apple, Qualcomm and Alibaba.
